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A Master Class on the Secret of “Tao” and the Ancient Taoist Code
What is the holy and sacred Tao? Hell if I know, and I’m a famous Taoist teacher. How’s that for a conundrum?
The word Tao has been endlessly embedded into pop culture by meme-meisters who are clueless as to what the word Tao actually means. They name their restaurants, Bubble Tea shops, Tao this and Tao that. Newbie spiritual seekers use the word to define the plastic, spiritually-materialistic, Chinese looking trinkets they put on their meditation alters.
I want to help if I can. In this story, I will amateurishly present my simple understanding of the idea of “Tao”. I can’t offer you a definition for what the word means or even represents, because there is none. Still, we have to start somewhere, so let me give it a shot.
Let’s begin our story the way Joseph Campbell or Ludwig Wittgenstein might, with definitions! The word “Tao” is actually the expression of the Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese characters (symbols) that in combination mean ‘head’ and ‘to go’. Simply this means “the way”, “the path”, or “the journey”. So many different, imprecise definitions coming out of two little simple characters.
Clearly, if we are serious about the subject at hand, we will need a definition much larger than simply “the way”.
